Alienware Steam Machine now a Windows PC for the living room

SteamOS and Steam controller out, Windows and Xbox 360 controller in.

Dell-owned Alienware plans to take the PC into the living room with a new PC called the Alpha. The Alpha was intended to be a Steam Machine running Valve's Debian Linux-based SteamOS—it was first shown off with a dozen other Steam Machines at CES earlier this year—but that's no longer going to be the case.

With Valve delaying the Steam Machines until 2015 after design issues with its Steam Controller, Alienware has had to change its plans. The Alpha will ship with 64-bit Windows 8.1 and a wireless Xbox 360 controller instead.

The systems are on track to ship during this year's holiday season. Starting at $549, the Alpha will come with a Core i3 Haswell processor, 4GB RAM, a 500GB hard disk, dual-band 802.11ac 1x1 Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI in and out, gigabit Ethernet, and two each of USB 2 and USB 3 ports. Upgrades will include Core i5 and i7 processors, 8GB RAM, hard disks up to 2TB, and 2x2 802.11ac.

The systems will also include an unusual GPU using NVIDIA's Maxwell architecture. The GPU is described by VentureBeat as being "custom built" and will be paired with 2GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory.

For prospective buyers, the operating system switch may turn out to be good news. Valve's Gabe Newell describes Windows 8 as a "catastrophe," but as a gaming operating system it has an important advantage over SteamOS: a lot more games.